Ambassador Prosor says OCHA rep in Jerusalem must be dismissed for claiming photo she posted via Twitter was of Palestinian girl killed in IAF strike; Israel found girl was killed in car crash

Ynet|Published: 18.03.12 , 11:31

The Israel Mission to the UN has formally requested that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) fire its national officer in Jerusalem,
Khulood Badawi, due to her blatant anti-Israel
activism, Fox News reported over the weekend.

Last week, the report said, Badawi used Twitter to send a picture of a bloodied child in her father’s arms with a caption: "Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by Israel. Another father carrying a child into a grave in Gaza."

Badawi's Twitter message

The Twitter message, which was a huge hit, claimed that the Palestinian girl had died from an Israeli airstrike the day before, but an Israeli examination of this claim found that the girl was killed in a car accident in 2006.

In his letter to OCHA Under-Secretary General Valerie Amos, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor wrote: “The picture was taken and published in 2006 by Reuters, which reported that this child died in an accident. She was not killed by Israeli forces.”

Ambassador Prosor is calling for Badawi‘s immediate dismissal for the inflammatory tweet, writing, “Ms. Badawi stands in complete violation of articles 100 and 101 of the UN Charter.”

Fox News reported that OCHA hired Badawi despite her record of pro-Palestinian activism, while OCHA’s own website espouses that “humanitarian actors must not take sides in hostilities or engage in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature.”

In response to Prosor's letter, Amos wrote: “It is regrettable that an OCHA staff member has posted information on her personal Twitter profile, which is both false and which reflects on issues that are related to her work. The opinions expressed in her tweets in no way reflect the views of OCHA, nor has it been sanctioned by OCHA.”

OCHA spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said Badawi remains fully employed, while an “internal inquiry reviews whether any action needs to be taken on the staff member.”

Fox News further reported that several pro-Palestinian websites have come to Badawi's defense, including Alternative News, which posted a petition to save her job.

According to the report, Badawi's defenders accuse the Israeli government and the pro-Israel camp of launching a campaign to muzzle Badawi's voice for “the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” and documenting of “human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”